the elder women as mothers; the younger as sisters, in all purity.
Parallel Translations
-
the elder women as mothers; the younger as sisters, in all purity.
-
the elder wemen as mothers the yonger as sisters with all purenes.
-
The elder women as mothers, the yonger as sisters, with all purenesse.
Cross-references (7)
Passages linked to 1 Timothy 5:2 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 1 Timothy 4:12 Let no man despise your youth; but be an example to those who believe, in word, in your way of life, in love, in spirit, in faith, and in purity.
- Matthew 12:50 For whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother.”
- Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are honorable, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report: if there is any virtue and if there is any praise, think about these things.
- 1 Timothy 5:3 Honor widows who are widows indeed.
- John 19:26-27 Therefore when Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing there, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” From that hour, the disciple took her to his own home.
- 2 Timothy 2:22 Flee from youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:22 Abstain from every form of evil.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (12 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 2 The younger as sisters, with all chastity The…
2 The younger as sisters, with all chastity The phrase, with all chastity, relates to younger women; for at that age they ought always to dread every kind of suspicion. Yet Paul does not forbid Timothy to have any criminal or immodest conduct towards young women, (for there was no need of such a prohibition,) but only enjoins him to beware of giving to wicked men any handle for laughter. For this purpose, he demands a chaste gravity, which shall shine throughout all their intercourse and conversation; so that he may more freely converse with young persons, without any unfavorable reports.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 2 The elder women as mothers; the younger as…
2 The elder women as mothers; the younger as sisters, with all purity.
Ver. 2. With all purity] Not with some only, but "with all purity," for fear of the worst, εν παση αγνεια: and lest any impure motion therewhile creep into the heart unawares. The souls of ministers should be purer than the sunbeams, saith Chrysostom. They are by their office the lights of the world: let no snuff abide in them, they are fullones animarum, fullers of men’s souls, to make and keep them white; let them take heed of a smutch. Turpe est doctori, &c. Nihil turpius est Peripatetico claudo. It is a shame for a teacher to be found faulty.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain The elder women as mothers; the same prudence also…
The elder women as mothers; the same prudence also is to be used to matrons and aged women.
The younger as sisters; yea, and to younger women too, considering our relation and equality in Christ.
Read full note →
With all purity; only as to them, (considering their sex), a further gravity and prudence is to be used, that we give no occasion to lust, or unclean motions.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain The elder women as mothers,.... When they offend in…
The elder women as mothers,.... When they offend in any point, they are to be reasoned, and argued, and pleaded with, as children should with their mothers; see Hos 2:2 and are to be considered as mothers in Israel, and to be treated with great tenderness and respect.
The younger as sisters; using the freedom as a brother may with a sister; and considering them as sisters in Christ, and in a way becoming the relation, tell them their faults freely and privately, but
Read full note →
with all purity: in such manner as to preserve chastity in looks, in words, and actions.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 2. The elder women as mothers] Treating them…
Verse 2. The elder women as mothers] Treating them with the respect due to their age.
The younger as sisters] Feel for every member of the Church, old and young, male and female; consider them as fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters; treat them all with gentleness; and labour to keep them in, not to expel them from, the Church.
Read full note →
With all purity.] εν παση αγνεια. With all chastity. See note on 1Ti 4:12.
There are some who seem to take a barbarous pleasure in expelling members from, the Church. They should be continued in as long as possible; while they are in the Church-under its ordinances and discipline, there is some hope that their errors may be corrected; but when once driven out again into the world, that hope must necessarily become extinct. As judgment is God's strange work, so excommunication should be the strange, the last, and the most reluctantly performed work of every Christian minister.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain The elder women as mothers - Showing still the…
The elder women as mothers - Showing still the same respect for age, and for the proprieties of life. No son who had proper feelings would rebuke his own mother with severity. Let the minister of religion evince the same feelings if he is called to address a “mother in Israel” who has erred.
The younger as sisters - With the feelings which you have toward a sister. The tender love which one has for a beloved sister would always keep him from using harsh and severe language. The same mildness, gentleness, and affection should be used toward a sister in the church.
Read full note →
With all purity - Nothing could be more characteristic of Paul’s manner than this injunction; nothing could show a deeper acquaintance with human nature. He knew the danger which would beset a youthful minister of the gospel when it was his duty to admonish and entreat a youthful female; he knew, too, the scandal to which he might be exposed if, in the performance of the necessary duties of his office, there should be the slightest departure from purity and propriety. He was therefore to guard his heart with more than common vigilance in such circumstances, and was to indulge in no word, or look, or action, which could by any possibility be construed as manifesting an improper state of feeling. On nothing else do the fair character and usefulness of a youthful minister more depend, than on the observance of this precept. Nowhere else does he more need the grace of the Lord Jesus, and the exercise of prudence, and the manifestation of incorruptible integrity, than in the performance of this duty. A youthful minister who fails here, can never recover the perfect purity of an unsullied reputation, and never in subsequent life be wholly free from suspicion; compare notes, Mat 5:28.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain A just medium must be observed in the guidance…
A just medium must be observed in the guidance of the sex, avoiding equally an indiscreet severity or an affection too tender and bordering on sensuality. A just diffidence in self is the best security. --- All chastity refers to the heart, eyes, ears, words, looks, with the precautions of times and places.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain with all purity--respectful treatment of the other sex will…
with all purity--respectful treatment of the other sex will promote "purity."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 2. Mothers—So that all these successive terms of relation…
2. Mothers—So that all these successive terms of relation render the Church a holy family.
All purity—A caution of momentous importance to all young ministers. Toward these sisters of his own age an avoidance of coquetries, familiar freedoms, is due to his own position as a minister. Sad experiences have shown the folly and guilt of neglecting here a safe reserve.
Read full note →
The widows first awakened the Jerusalem Church to the need of sub-apostolic organization, (Act_6:1-6,) and called the deacons into existence. In an age when men are called to war and subjected to massacre, the widows would form a large and dependent class, and the number of claimants would require their subjection to scrutiny and sifting.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 2. with all purity] Accurately in; the R.V. shews…
2. with all purity] Accurately in; the R.V. shews the connexion of the phrase with ‘the younger’ by a colon instead of comma after ‘mothers.’ Jerome’s rule is well quoted here ‘omnes puellas et virgines Christi aut aequaliter ignora aut aequaliter dilige.’ There is no simpler safeguard against illnatured remark and gossip than to maintain an even level of careful courteous intercourse, and what old George Herbert calls ‘grave liveliness.’
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (2) The elder women as mothers.—The same watchful care…
(2) The elder women as mothers.—The same watchful care against all assumption of superiority must also be exercised in his dealings with the Christian matrons of Ephesus.
The younger as sisters, with all purity.—In the case of the younger women, St. Paul adds to his directions respecting brotherly and sisterly regard a grave word, urging upon Timothy, and all official teachers like Timothy, to add to this self-denying, loving friendship a ceaseless watchfulness in all their conversation, so as not to afford any ground for suspicion; for, above all things, the recognised teacher of Christianity must be pure. No one can read and forget the quaint words of advice of St. Jerome: “Omnes puellas et virgines Christi, aut æqualiter ignora aut ægualiter dilige.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain In for with, A.V Purity (ajgneia); seew 1Ti_4:12, note.…
In for with, A.V Purity (ajgneia); seew 1Ti_4:12, note. See how jealously the apostle guards against any possibility of abuse of the familiar intercourse of a clergyman with the women of his flock. They are his sisters, and ajgnei is to be the constant condition of his heart and character.
What women should be.
Read full note →
elder women as mothers; the younger as sisters, with all purity." Full of the power which comes from feminine pity. Full of motherly experiences about children. Fall of daily care and the deaconate of serving the home-tables. Full of a great heart-love that would make a roof-tree for all, as a hen that gathereth her chickens under her wings. Timothy will yet learn in the Church work the value of a mother in Israel.
1. Mothers were our first pastors.
2. Mothers were our earliest examples.
younger as sisters, with all purity." Beautiful is the holy grace of purity, and sensitive is the girl-heart to the loveliness of true virtue! Put them not into confessionals to suggest sins that they never knew, and deprave the nature under the pretence of absolving it. W.M.S.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.